WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - We were on Southern Avenue in Southeast DC to cover a reported home invasion that occurred at 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

D.C. Police said four armed men held eight people hostage, assaulted three of them, including a male who had a broom stick thrust into his mouth.

Photographer Danielle Gill and I were knocking on doors, trying to get neighbors to talk to us. Most of them did not know the family living in the house.

All agreed it had been an up and down community--meaning the drugs and violence would come and go; No one was willing to guess what lead to the home invasion.

We were standing on the sidewalk immediately in front of the house, talking to the mail delivery person, when a young woman who had yelled at us before to get away, comes to the window to yell some more.

I replied that we were on a public sidewalk.

She leaves the window, appears out the front door; spraying mace and shouting profanities.

There is a punch thrown that hits me and my photographer.

We are okay, not even shaken by the incident. We have notified police. We are not interested in pressing charges.